How to Look at Traffic Sources for your Web Site

Earlier this week, I wrote a post about basic web analytics, and stats you should be pulling on a regular basis to better understand how your site is used.

Traffic. From Flickr user Zoonabar.

The most important stats to track for my clients are those regarding web site traffic sources. Where is site traffic coming from, and what does it do once it gets there?


There are several kinds of traffic you'll see on your stats, including the following:

• Organic (unpaid, regular) search
• Paid search
• Online ads
• Social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, other)
• Email
• Direct (people type your URL into their browser or they have it bookmarked)
• Referring Sites (any other web site that refers traffic to you)

First, it's critical that you understand what portion of your site traffic is coming from each source type.

• It's essential to know whether most of your traffic comes from outreach like social or email, or customers reaching out to you through channels like search.
• It's also good to know what sites are referring traffic to you. Finding out which blogs, etc. are linking to you and developing those relationships could bring you a lot more traffic down the road. 

It's just as important to understand a few things about the behavior of traffic from each source. 

• Does one of your sources have a particularly high bounce rate (rate of one-page visits), for example? Say you find that the bounce rate from your ad traffic is far higher than for other channels. You might want to develop a special landing page for people who click on ads that better introduces your site and what you have to offer.
• Is one of your sources responsible for most of the conversion behavior on your site? If it turns out that people who reach you from email or social media convert far better than other kinds of traffic, then your goal should be to get new visitors to sign up for email and join you on Facebook or Twitter before doing anything else.

How are you using web analytics to grow site traffic and conversions? Let me know or drop me a line if you want to talk about it. 

News This Week: Women, Siri, Real Time

What should you be paying attention to this week?

The world's women are now responsible for more of the world's economy than men, controlling $20 trillion in yearly consumer spending in 2009, a figure that will continue to rise in the next five years. (Harvard Business Review)

Your takeaway: Don't ignore your female customers, but don't patronize them either. It's not about "making it pink" - women don't  need pink web sites or pink merchandise to embrace your brand. We need quality products, easy access to reviews and other product data, and a way to talk to our friends about it.

To the women's only train cars in India. Photo: Flickr user Zoonabar.

The iPhone 4S's new digital assistant, Siri, is down. According to this article, Apple was unable to be reached for comment. (Business Insider)

Your takeaway: Bugs happen, seemingly no  matter how much you test. Don't ignore them and get them resolved as quickly as you can. Communicate progress via all possible channels and make it right. Customers become more loyal when you prove that you stand behind what you do.

Google Analytics Real Time tells you what's happening on your site right now, and is now available to people with the new version of the Analytics software. (Google)

Your takeaway: Real Time can be really useful to determine the immediate impact of social media posts - on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or on other networks. Even more useful, you'll be able to see when  your social media stops working - how long does a Facebook post last, or a Tweet?


Have a good weekend, and thanks for reading!

News This Week: Target, Twitter, Jobs

What should you be paying attention to this week?

Sold-out Missoni suitcase. Image: Target.

The price of success: Target's Missoni sales event generated more traffic than on Black Friday, and more traffic than its site could handle, locking out desperate Frugalistas for hours. (Consumerist)

Your takeaway: Do you know how much traffic your site can really handle? What's your backup plan? Do you need to expand your bandwidth? Now's a good time to investigate your limits, just in case.

Because knowing is half the battle: In an appeal to businesses, Twitter launches a new analytics tool. The new Twitter Web Analytics will help users understand how their web properties are shared across twitter, how much traffic twitter drives to their sites, and measure usage of the Tweet Button application.  (Social Media Today)


Your takeaway: According to this study, Twitter influences more purchases than Facebook, so this is great information to have all in one place. At the moment, the new tool is only available to a small group, but be sure and give it a whirl once it's available to everyone in a few weeks.

The word of the day is "job": Last week, I wrote about the American Jobs Act, which President Obama debuted in a speech on September 8th. This week, Congressional Republicans have drawn a line in the sand about taxes (they don't want to raise them), so it remains to be seen what will happen with the bill. In the mean time, here are a few things you can do to create jobs while Congress gets its deal on.

What are you thinking about this week? Please comment or drop me a line.

Age vs Stage - What's More Important?

You probably know that you have different types of customers, and that it makes sense to group them somehow. After all, segmenting your customers makes your marketing more efficient - you'll be able to customize your campaigns to work most efficiently for each group.

So what's more important, customer age or customer stage?
photo © 2010 Vivian Evans | more info (via: Wylio)

Well, customer age can be a useful measurement - after all, you're going to pitch your messaging differently if most of your customers are over 65 than if most of them are under 21. It's also great to know your customers' birthdays so you can send them special promotions.

But wouldn't it be more practical to know if, for example, your 35-year-old customer is...

...a new parent?
...a full-time college student?
...a newlywed?
...just started a new job?
...taking care of an elderly parent?
...CEO of a large company?
...recently retired?

Wouldn't it be much more useful to know this information, rather than the age of your customer?

This is why lifestage is so important. Understanding where your customers are right now will help you craft offerings that resonate far better than anything else you might try simply based on customer age.

So how you do you find out what lifestage people are in?

The best way is by far the simplest- just ask.

Are you in the stage of life where you need some marketing help? Let me know.

Related posts:
Email isn't Dead! Permission Based Marketing Works
Secret Trade Secrets on Defining Your Audience

Marketing News Roundup - July 1, 2011

What's new in marketing (and elsewhere) this week?

photo © 2011 Nigel Howe | more info (via: Wylio)
If you paid too much for your house, don't feel bad. At least you're not News Corp, which bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million, and just sold it to ad network Specific Media for $35 million. Reports indicate that half of MySpace's staff will be cut. (All Things D)

Wondering what people are doing with their iPads? According to a new study by Business Insider, they're using them between 2 and 5 hours a day and downloading lots of apps. A whopping 39.7% of those surveyed indicate that their iPad is now their primary computer. Takeaway: If you haven't done so already, make sure you've tested all of your web properties on one of these devices. (The Atlantic)

How are Facebook, Twitter, and other social apps affecting your web traffic? Google has just made figuring this out easier with enhanced social performance modules on Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. Thanks, folks! (Mashable)

Have a great holiday weekend, and thanks for reading!